Strongest Weakness
by PrincessKitty-Chan
Summary: The X-Men gain a new recruit who isn't exactly what they expected. She seems to be invulnerable, until they find her secret.


            **Disclaimer:** I don't own X-Men Evolution.  The only things I own are Petey, Alice, Bill, and (of course) Beck!  I think Bernadette and I share ownership of Bernadette (since Bernadette is one of my actually real best friends).  I think I own from 10% to 50% of Bernadette, but the personality is totally based off her.    ^_^

X-Men Evolution: The Newcomer

            Two women were in a dining room in a shabby looking apartment.  One of them looked to be a teenager, while the other appeared to be an older woman.  The younger one was sitting at the table.  She had long brown hair, and was looking very bored at the time, because the older one was busy screaming her head off at her.  The older woman had brown hair that was turning gray, and had a very aggravated/parental look on her face.

            "…You sent that kid to the hospital!!" said the older woman.

            The younger one finally decided to speak up.  She screamed back in the older woman's face, "He asked for it!"

            "At one point, you are going to get us in so much trouble.  One of these days, we're going to be sued!" argued the older woman.

            "Yeah, yeah," said the younger one, no longer paying attention.

            The older woman continued to scream in her face, but the younger one put her hand up in front of the older woman's face as if to say, 'Whatever, I don't care.'

            The younger one started thinking to herself, 'Man, this is getting boring.  I'm just going to get up and leave from this table, and we'll see what she's going to do about it.'

            The younger one arose and left the table, turning her back to the older woman.  The younger one found this was very strange, because the older woman seemed to still be screaming at her as if she was still sitting at the table.  The girl turned around to see someone who looked just like her sitting at the table.  The younger one screamed and fell down, and all at once, the "her" sitting at the table disappeared.  The older woman looked at the girl in horror.  The younger girl continued to scream. 

            At once, an older man, who looked to be the same age as the older woman, came running in from another room.  He was shouting, asking what was wrong.  The girl choked out, "I-saw-myself-over-there!"  She pointed to where she had been sitting.  The older woman nodded to confirm this.  

            The older man and woman put their arms around her, and started rocking her, saying, "You knew this was going to happen sooner or later, Beck."

            A big, beautiful housecat (who must have been Beck's pet) came tearing into the room.  It stopped right in front of her, and snuggled against her.  It's big green eyes looked sadly into her wet, blue eyes.  She wrapped her arms around it.  She cried into its fur.

            Back at the Xavier Institute, everybody was enjoying their day off from school, because it was Columbus Day.  Curt was busy throwing food at Scott while hanging by his feet from a chandelier.  Evan was hysterically laughing, while Kitty was trying to ignore him.  Jean and Rogue were busy talking in order to ignore him.  Logan was sitting, reading a newspaper, really not caring about what was going on around him.  Neither Orroro not Hank were in the kitchen. Professor Xavier came in saying, "Kitty, Jean, I need your help.  Cerebro has detected another mutant, and I believe that you two should come with me and convince her to talk to me.

            "Oh," Kitty complained, "but it's Columbus Day! Can't we just have the day off?"

            "No," answered the professor, "this is very important."

            Kitty, Jean, and the professor were riding in one of the institute-owned vehicles.

            "So where are we going, anyway?" asked Kitty.

            "We are going to Newark, New Jersey, to get the new student," answered the professor.

            "So where are we going to meet her?" asked Jean.

            "At her school, answered the professor.

            "Why would she be in school when she has the day off?" asked Kitty.

            "Because she doesn't have the day off." 

            "What?!" both Kitty and Jean exclaimed simultaneously.

            "Man," said Kitty, "she must have one awful school."

            Beck was sitting in class, taking a test.  She looked over to the left to see two kids cheating.  "Of course," she thought to herself.  Another kid was shooting spitballs.  Paper airplanes zoomed through the air.  Beck looked over to see the teacher; he was very much asleep.  "Man, I'm getting thirsty," she thought to herself.  "I wish I could just sneak out of here."  Then she remembered what had happened at her home.  She remembered the voice of the older man, Bill, her guardian, "You shouldn't use these powers that you have just gotten.  It could be dangerous.  People won't understand.  Promise me you won't use your powers."

            "Sorry, Bill," she thought to herself, "but I'm not the type who plays better safe than sorry."

            She started thinking the same thoughts as she did the night before, "I'll just get up and leave.  We'll see if he can even see me to do anything about it."

            She slowly stood up, concentrating.  When she was standing at her full height, next to the desk, she looked at her seat.  She saw "herself," and that sent shivers down her spine, but she didn't lose her concentration.  She walked outside the room, and her invisible self started drinking from the water fountain.

            All of the sudden, out of nowhere she felt a tap on her shoulder.  She screamed and turned around, thinking to herself, 'How could a person see me--I'm invisible?'  She looked and saw a tall girl with long red hair (Jean) and a shorter girl with brown hair in a ponytail (Kitty).  They were both looking at her.  Beck stuttered, "H-h-how could you see me?!"

            "We want to talk to you," said the red-haired girl, "about your powers."

            Bill's voice kept ringing in Beck's head.  'How could they know?' she thought to herself.  'This is all my fault.  If only I'd listened to Bill!'  She was terrified, but she had a fighting spirit.  She put her fists up.

            "What do you want?" she yelled at them.

            "Whoa, whoa," said the brunette girl, approaching her to try to calm her down.  "We don't want anything.  We just want to talk to you."

            "Yeah, right," Beck screamed, and threw a wild punch at the girl.  The girl screamed, but the punch didn't connect.  Beck looked at her fist; it was extended just a few inches from the girl's face, but it was frozen in place.  She looked to see that the red-haired girl was concentrating.  Beck looked at her in shock.  She pulled her fist back, and the red-haired girl released her.  Now Beck was really scared.  "You aren't going to do anything to me!" At that she ran over to a locker without a lock, pulled herself into it, and slammed the door shut.  She yelled from inside the locker, "The custodian's made a mistake with this locker; the lock is on the inside, not on the outside.  Now I can open and close it whenever I want.  So you can't do anything to me!"

            Jean turned to Kitty and nodded.   Kitty walked right up to the locker and stuck her upper body through the door.  Beck looked up at Kitty in horror.  She screamed whiled fiddling with the combination wildly, and flew out of the locker, accidentally doing two somersaults.  When she got up, she started moving away from the two girls.  Kitty removed herself from the locker and joined her friend.  Beck was backing up more.  She accidentally backed up into a radiator, didn't know what she hit, turned around in fear, and realized that it was only a radiator.  Then there was a noise.  Beck's teacher walked out into the hall and yelled, "What's all the racket out here?  What are you doing out of class, Rebecca?"

            Kitty and Jean were about to say a really lame excuse, when Beck said, "These girls had to talk to me about something that went on at home.  I asked you if I could leave the room, and you said I could."

            "I did?" asked the teacher, not sure whether he couldn't remember or if Beck was lying. 

            All three girls shook their heads "yes."

            "Oh, okay," said the teacher, uncertainly.  "Well if I did, then…then don't make so much racket!"

            The teacher walked back to his classroom, muttering to himself about how his memory is going, and how it must be because the kids are driving him insane.  He slammed the door closed and half the disrupted class laughed.  

            Kitty and Jean looked at Beck, rather shocked.  "Why didn't you rat us out to the teacher?" asked Kitty.

            Beck started walking towards them.  They got a little nervous.  "You two won fair and square," Beck said.  "You outsmarted me, so obviously you get to talk to me about whatever it is you want to talk to me about."

            Kitty and Jean looked at each other.  Jean said, "Our professor knows about what happened to you last night. He has a school for people who have gifts like we do.  He wants to come down to your house, tell you about it, and see if you want to join us.

            Beck considered this for a minute.  "Okay, he's welcome to come.  The only problem is that when he gets there, he won't find a house.  In fact, there's only one house in this entire neighborhood, and I live in one of the worst apartments.  So, I hope your professor doesn't mind being in a ratty old dump for the few minutes he wants to talk to me."

            Kitty and Jean both looked at her, deciding whether or not to pity her, but they figured she wasn't the type who liked pity (they were right, too), so they decided they had better start leaving.  Kitty had turned to walk away, when she realized she had better warn Beck.  "By the way, if anyone tries to talk to you about your powers along the way home, try your best to get away from them."

            Beck was skating home on her beat-up skateboard.  She didn't believe in school buses-there was too much violence on them.  Though she was skating home with a few cuts and bruises because she had just been through a fight with five members of a gang.  Yeah, sure, that's not violence.

            At one point she got bored of skating and jumped off in front of her skateboard.  Doing that action while the skateboard was moving caused it to hit her heels and bounce into the air.  Beck caught it while moving only her left arm.  She looked around and realized that she was only five blocks away from her house.  She also noticed that she was next to an alley, and someone in there was trying to talk to her.  Being the tough idiot she knew she was, Beck walked over there to see who it was.

            She saw a woman, who looked to be a teacher, standing there.  The lady had her brown hair pulled back into a tight bun, glasses with a 1960's style frame, and a gray, office-type jacket and a matching skirt.  She had a very stern face.  Beck had never had a teacher that looked like her before.  The lady turned to Beck and smiled.  The smile looked new and forced, as if the lady had never smiled before.  "I would like to talk to you," said the lady, her voice as cold as ice," about your powers."  At that, the lady changed her form to what she really looked like.  She had short, straight, red hair and was wearing a white dress that was held together with what looked like small skulls.  The lady looked just like the other form, except for one difference: this lady's skin was blue.

            Beck started to get a little interested, thinking that maybe this was the great professor, or at least someone who could help her.  Then she remembered Kitty's voice saying, "And if anyone else tries to talk to you about your powers along the way home, try your best to get away from them."  Beck made the mistake of not listening to advice once; she wasn't going to try that again.  "Sorry," Beck said, "but I'm not interested."

            "Wait, the blue lady said, but Beck was already walking away.  "I can help you!" she cried.  Beck stopped walking, and the lady smiled to herself.  "My name is Mystique."  Beck stood still.  Mystique started walking over to her and the smile on her face turned evil.  "I know what you're going through; you have a new power, and you have no idea what it does or how powerful it is, everyone's clueless about how to help you, and your parents are worried about you: even scared of you."  Mystique felt very proud of herself--she thought she'd hit a weak spot in Beck.

            Beck slowly turned around, but instead of crying like Mystique had expected, Beck had an evil smile on _her_ face.  Beck laughed a short, evil laugh.  "You're completely wrong about _everything_ you have just said.  It's true, I do have a new power, but I know _exactly_ what it does _and_ how powerful it is.  Also, two girls showed up, telling me the way to help me.  _Finally_, you are _completely_ wrong about my parents being worried and scared of me.  Would you like to know how I know this?  It's because my parents are _dead_!" Beck screamed at Mystique.

            Mystique was in a great shock, but she wouldn't give up.  She walked over to Beck, but by then Beck was so angry that she just punched Mystique in the face and sent her flying ten feet back.  Beck calmed down a bit, but Mystique was out cold.  Beck dropped her skateboard down and skated the rest of the way home.

            Professor Xavier had arrived at Beck's apartment building at about the time school was let out.  He had already driven Kitty and Jean back home, because once they reached Beck's apartment after talking to her, they complained that they had so many hours left, and that all they wanted to do was go home and finish their day off.  The professor, being the kind man that he was, had decided that they had plenty of time, and would bring the girls back to the institute. 

            Since the professor was confined to a wheelchair, he had to use the rickety, old broken-down elevator to get to the fifth floor apartment where Beck lived.  As he wheeled down the hall, he noticed that the walls on either side had holes in them or the paint was peeling away, leaving being a white powder.  When he finally got to Beck's apartment, he was relieved to see that it was one of the few doors to have its numbers intact.  He knocked on the door, half expecting it to fall over because of how stingy the place was.

            The woman opened the door and said, "How can I help you, sir?"  Her voice was clear and dignified.  The woman looked to be around forty years old, about the same age as the professor.

            "Yes," said the professor in his slight English accent (England English), "are you Mrs. Robertson?"

            "Yes, I am," answered the woman.

            Then the man named Bill walked over to Mrs. Robertson.  "What's going on, Alice?"

            "I would just like to know if you two are the parents of Rebecca."  
            Alice and Bill looked at each other.  "No, we're not," Alice answered.  "Rebecca's parents died almost eight years ago; we are Rebecca's foster parents."

            "What do you want to know about Rebecca?" asked Bill.

            "Actually, I would like to talk to you about Rebecca's new gift."

            When Beck got home, she saw a bald man in a wheelchair (the professor) and Alice sitting in the living room, talking cheerfully, while Bill was sitting in a chair near Alice, not talking, but looking very interested.  Beck walked in slowly, feeling very out of place.

            The professor turned around to face Beck.  "Are you Rebecca Robertson?"

            "No," she answered truthfully, "I'm Rebecca Lewis; I don't have the same last name as them."  She pointed to Alice and Bill.

            "Rebecca-" the professor began.

            "Please don't call me that--call me Beck."

            "I'm sorry, Beck.  I would like to talk to you about your new powers," said the professor.  Beck looked over at Alice and Alice smiled pleasantly at her.

            "Will you excuse me for a moment?" asked Beck.

            "Certainly," said the professor.  Beck walked over to her bedroom and disappeared into it.

            Bill stood up, and Alice gave him a 'what do you think you're doing?!' stare.  Bill turned to her and said, "Something just isn't right, Alice."  At that he left the room.  Alice turned back to the professor and gave him an 'I'm sorry' look.

            There was some yelling in the background, and then a few minutes later Bill came out, carrying the struggling Beck horizontally around the waist.  Alice stood up and looked at them.  "I caught her trying to sneak out the window," said Bill.

            "Oh, Beck," sighed Alice.

            "I can do whatever I want," Beck yelled.  "Put me down!"

            At once the cat that had tried to comfort Beck the night she discovered her power came up to Bill and dug its claws into his pant leg.  Bill looked down and tried to shake the cat off, but the cat wouldn't budge.  "Beck, sick that cat away from me!"

            Beck leaped out of Bill's arms and reached down and picked up the cat, comforting it.  "First off, he's not 'that cat,' his name is Petey, and he deserves more respect than you do!"

            At once, Bill and Beck got into a very loud fight.  Alice yelled at the top of her lungs, "Children!"  Beck and Bill immediately stopped fighting to stare at her.  She said, "We have a guest.  Let's try to be as nice, polite, and un-childlike as we possibly can.  Bill, you sit over in your chair, and Beck, you sit down next to me on the couch.

            The professor said, "Listen, really, if Beck doesn't think she's ready to join the institute, that's her own choice, and let's not try to force her."

            "Oh, she's ready," Bill said.  Beck stuck her tongue out at him, and Alice gave both of them a dirty look.  They all sat down and Petey jumped up into Beck's lap.

            The professor, Alice, and Bill were all looking at Beck.  "Since your powers are still very new, and you need to learn a lot about how to control them, I would suggest you join the institute as soon as possible," said the professor.

            "Oh, all right, all right, I'm ready, said Beck.

            The professor started explaining to Beck about he hoped to create a world where mutants and people could work together, but that there were mutants and people who felt strongly against it.  "We must fight for our cause, but we must also learn to use our powers in order to help other people."

            Beck became very interested in what he was saying, but she wasn't sure if she should trust him or not after her encounter with Mystique.  She looked down at her cat.  He looked up at her, and then he jumped down off her lap and jumped onto the professor's.  The professor wasn't sure what to do, but before he could do anything the cat jumped down off his lap and jumped back into Beck's.  Beck looked at Petey and he gave her a little cat smile and nodded.

            She looked up at the professor and said, "If Petey trusts you, I guess I can trust you.  The only thing is, I have to be allowed to bring Petey Pie with me."  He agreed to it and she went into her bedroom and packed her things.  She also told Alice and Bill to say goodbye to all of her friends for her.  Then she went into the professor's car and they drove to the institute.

            By the time they got to the institute, Beck was very nervous.  She thought to herself, 'I don't know if this place will work for me.  What if everyone hates me?'

            Since Professor Xavier's power is that he can read minds, he knew what she was thinking and told her, "Don't worry; I'm sure everyone will think you're wonderful.  After all, we have some of the strangest students in the world here."

            This made Beck feel a little better, but boy was she a funny sight to see!  She had four plastic bags to hold her clothes and things because she didn't have enough money to buy real bags. On top of that, she made Petey carry her pillow and skateboard, so he was standing on top of the pillow, which was on top of the skateboard.  Since he was too little to carry that (though he was pretty tall for a cat), he stood on top of the mound and skated on it with his right, front paw.    

            When they got to the door, Beck didn't have any hands left to try to open the door, so she "juggled" her things and then dropped all of them before she got the door open.  Since she was busy trying to pick her plastic bags back up, Petey skated in first.

            All the students of the Xavier Institute (Scott, Jean, Kitty, Curt, Evan, and Rogue) were all sitting around at the bottom of the staircase, bored to death because they had the day off with nothing to do ("Some scene to come home to," –Kitty).  Rogue looked over and saw Petey skating in on the skateboard.  "Eew!" Rogue shrieked in her Mississippi accent and stood up.  "I cain't stand cats, and if I'm not goin' crazy, that one's on a skateboard!"  That caught everyone's attention.  They all stood up and stared at the cat skating around on a skateboard.

            "Hey," yelled a voice from behind the door.  At once, Beck came rushing in with the professor behind her.  She put her bags down near the door, went over to the skateboard, stopped it, and picked her cat up.  "Petey Pie gets very offended by remarks like that."  She raised Petey up farther so they were face-to-face, "Right Petey?" she asked her cat.

            Professor Xavier decided it was best to introduce her before anyone started thinking she was a lunatic, or a burglar, or both.  "Everyone, this is Rebecca, our new student."

            "Please don't call me that," Beck asked.

            "Oh, right." Professor Xavier corrected himself.  "She wishes to be called 'Beck.'"

            At once, questions flew at her; "Why do you want to be called 'Beck?'"

            "Because 'Rebecca' is too girlish, and 'Becky' and 'Becka' are even worse."

            "Where did you come from?"

            "Newark, and that's the toughest place you'll ever be!"

            Evan felt differently, "No way, New York is by far the worst."

            Beck had a great comeback; "What, are we having a fight over who's home is the worst?"  Evan got embarrassed.  "Anyway," Beck continued, "if you want to prove your 'manliness' I'll race you sometime."

            "So, that's your skateboard, right?" Evan asked pointing to the skateboard Petey rode in on.

            "Of course," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

            "Fine, then, I have one, too.  We'll race one of these days," Evan answered back.

            A slightly evil smile was curling at the side of Beck's lips.  He had no idea that she used to race sports cars and motorcycles back home, and that little things like cars in her path didn't matter to her; she'd just jump right over them.

            "How old are you?" Scott finally asked.

            "I'll be thirteen in a month," Beck answered.

            That stopped everyone's questions.  "But professor," Scott said, "isn't the age when we discover our powers always at some time in high school?"

            "Really, Scott, we can develop our powers at any time, though at your age point it is most common," stated Professor Xavier smartly.  "My only guess is that she is an 'early bloomer.'"

            Everyone accepted that.  Then Curt finally spoke up about what had been racking his brain since he first set eyes on her.  "So what's with the wardrobe?" he asked in his German accent, pointing to what Beck was wearing.

            "What, does it look bad?" she asked looking down at her outfit.  She was wearing her favorite outfit, a camouflage tank-top, baggy tan pants with almost a million pockets on them, and of course her favorite hat, that was camouflage colored with a tan rim, that was on backwards.

            "It looks fine," Curt began, "it just looks a little too…"

            "Boyish," Evan finished.

            Beck looked up at them as if to say "what are you, idiots?"  "Well, duh.  I'm a tomboy," Beck answered.  They all stared at her and murmured to one another.  "Oh, come on," Beck said exasperated, "I know hundreds of fifteen-year-old tomboys.  Jeez!"  At that, everyone began to accept the fact that she was slightly boyish.

            "Hey," Kitty exclaimed after remembering the question she wanted to ask.  "Before Jean and I came back here, we stopped at some apartment building.  Is that _really_ where you and your parents live?"

            That stopped Beck's heart.  She thought about her parents' death.  She couldn't tell them what really happened; she could barely tell Alice and Bill what had happened, and she was only six at the time they adopted her.

            "Yeah," she answered weakly, "that's where I live with my parents."

            Professor Xavier had already been told by Alice Robertson that Beck's parents had died eight years ago, but he knew better than to tell his students about this if it really hurt Beck that much.

            Beck cleared her throat and smiled to cover up how she really felt.

            From out of a hallway, somewhere in the big mansion that was the institute, a big, rugged-looking guy came walking out.  "Logan," the professor said as he turned his wheelchair to see him walk in, "I'd like you to meet our new student, Beck."  The professor turned to Beck.  "Beck, Logan is one of the instructors at this institute."  Logan stopped in front of her.  He was over one third taller than her, though she was taller than most of the students of the institute already.  Beck brought out her hand to shake hands with him, and to get her mind off of her parents.  Instead of bringing up his hand to shake hers, he extended his long, metallic claws from his knuckles.  Her hand drooped slightly, but then she brought it back up, and put a big smile on her face.  Logan just got annoyed by this, brushed her away, and walked off.

            Kitty walked over to Beck and said, "Don't mind Mr. Logan; he's always like that."

             "We'll see about that," Beck said, staring after him. 

            After that Orroro came into the room.  "Auntie O, perfect timing," Evan exclaimed. 

            "Timing for what?" Orroro asked in her deep African accent.

            "Timing to meet the new student, 'Beck,' as she likes to be called," explained the professor.

            Orroro turned around to see Beck.  She shook hands with her.  "I'm very pleased to meet you, Beck.  May your stay at the Institute be a happy one."  At that, Orroro walked off in a hurry to do something.

            Beck stared off after her.  She smiled a bright smile.  "There we go!" Beck happily exclaimed.  "Respect; I like it when people give that to me."  She turned to face the others.  "And she's nice, too." 

            Professor Xavier interrupted and said, "Kitty and Jean, would you two please show Beck her new room, since you know her a little better than everyone else?"

            Beck's room was beyond what she could imagine.  The second they turned the knob to the door and opened it, she couldn't get a clear view of the entire room, unlike the small room she had back at the apartment.  She walked in dazzled.  She said, "Is this really_ my_ room?  I mean, it's huge!  I don't have to, like, share this place with twenty people, do I?  I mean, it could comfortably fit twenty people!  I'd share if I had to." 

            "That will be quite all right, Beck; this room is entirely yours.  We also have a present for you sitting on the bed."  It was a folded up costume that had a little bit of blue on it, but it was mostly black.  It looked to be very flexible and it came with neat black shoes with blue stripes.  She picked up a shoe and started looking at it from all different angles.

            The professor said, "If you press the button on the heel, you'll notice that a set of wheels comes out."  She did and out popped three wheels.  The shoe now looked like an inline skate.

            "This is really for me?" Beck asked amazed.

            "Yes, but I'm afraid you won't be using it yet," explained the professor.  "These are costumes we use in battle.  I'm afraid you won't be fighting yet--you're much too young."

            That made Beck very upset.  "But Professor, that's not fair!"

            "I'm afraid you're two years younger than the youngest student here.  Since you are new and unfamiliar with our battles, it would be too costly to lose you."

            Beck was still disappointed, but nothing could take her eyes away from her new room.  She walked around to the other side of the bed.  "Well, this place is still cool," she said, while leaning against what she thought was a dresser.  When she felt her elbow slipping, she looked over and saw that her elbow was resting on absolutely nothing.  She fell over with a loud, "Oomph!"

            When she finally got herself back together, she turned to Petey and said, "Isn't this place great, Petey?"

            Jean asked, "Um, why do you talk to that cat?  I mean, it's not like he can answer."

            "It's because he can!" exclaimed Beck.  "Go ahead, try him.  Ask any 'yes' or 'no' question.

            "Okay," said Kitty.  She turned to Petey.  "Is your name 'Petey?'"

            Petey gave her a look as if to say, 'Are you crazy, or just incredibly stupid?'  Surprisingly, he nodded his head.

            Kitty, Jean, and the professor were all shocked.

            "You can try something harder; he's not dumb, you know," said Beck.

            "Okay," said Jean, "Petey, do you like to swim?"

            Petey shook his head violently, "NO!"

            "See?" Beck said to the awestruck group.

            That night Beck's head stayed awake, buzzing like crazy.  "Amazing how one little thing that happens to you can change your world forever," Beck whispered to Petey who was sleeping on her stomach.  "I've never been in such a big, soft bed before; it's completely different from the couch I sleep on in my old room.  It's also so weird to be in a room all to myself, when it's almost twice the size of my house."  She smiled to herself.  "And tomorrow's school in a brand new school, in a brand new place.  There isn't even any smoke, or huge buildings; there's even a lot of forest.  I'm in a completely new place where I don't know how things are around here.  Nope, I don't feel nervous at all, nosiree," she said sarcastically.

            It was seven thirty in the morning the next morning.  Everyone had already woken up, taken a shower, gotten dressed, and were sitting at the breakfast table, starting on breakfast.  Everyone had done that, except for Beck.  Jean had already gotten somewhat worried that Beck had gotten cold feet, and didn't want to go to school.  She knew Beck had gone through a lot of major changes.  Jean was about to get up and check on Beck, when Beck suddenly skated through the door on her new roller blades.

            Of course, Beck had never been on roller-skates before, so she came wobbling in, waving her arms wildly, and had to grab onto the table in front of her, so as not to go falling flat on her face, or crashing into another wall. Instead, she slipped under the table Jean was very relieved to see that Beck looked perfectly fine, and she was all dressed for school (Beck was wearing blue, baggy pants, and a big, gray shirt).

            "Hey Beck, where were you all morning?" asked Evan.

            "Sleeping," she remarked while trying to stand up on her roller blades.

            "What?!" everybody exclaimed.

            "I'm not a morning person.  Besides, I'm not in a rush; my bus comes at about," she looked at her wristwatch, "now," she said, perfectly calmly.

            "What?!" everyone exclaimed again.

            "School doesn't start for another half hour, so I'm fine."

            "How do you expect to get to school?" Scott asked.

            "Oh, I'll go on my skateboard," she answered

            "Yeah, but Bayville Jr. High is ten miles away."

            "Not if I take the woods that connect the two schools."  Beck reached over and grabbed some toast. 

            "What grade are you in anyway, runt?  Preschool?" asked Logan ruder than he usually is.

            "Mr. Logan, that was rude," answered Kitty.

            "Hey it's not as bad as what I'm used to," answered Beck.  "I'm in eighth grade."

            Scott started doing the math in his head.  "Wait but at your age, you missed the cutoff for eighth grade."

            "I skipped a grade."

            "What?!" everyone exclaimed

            "You guys really seem to like that word," Beck remarked.  She continued to get odd looks.  "I'm no idiot, ya know; my mom was an English teacher."  Beck looked down sadly.  "Was…" She looked up and realized everyone was staring at her.  She put on a fake smile and skated away.

            The woods were long and winding, but there was a clear pathway that marked the way to the school.  Beck was going at a very fast speed, but couldn't help being slightly frightened; she hadn't been in the woods for as long as she could remember.  At every turn, she thought she heard the hissing of a snake, or the growl of a bear or fox.  No matter what, it bothered her, and she just wanted to get out of there.

            In Beck's homeroom in Bayville Jr. High, Beck had already been given her assigned seat.  The teacher decided that since Beck was new, Beck should tell the class some of her interests to get to know her better.

            "I like skateboarding, cats, and beating up bullies."

            The whole class sniggered at her remark.  Beck returned to her seat.  The teacher tried to quiet the class.  The guy in front of her turned around.  "You don't look so tough," he said to her, "I could take you on."

            "Okay, do you want to fight after school in the parking lot?" offered Beck

            "No problem," the nasty kid answered with a sneer.

            Lunchtime came around at twelve thirty, so Beck found an empty table and sat down.  She was sitting and thinking, when some girl walked over to where she was sitting.

            "Do you mind if I sit here?" asked the girl, indicating the seat in front of Beck.  Beck looked around.  

            "If you want," Beck answered mildly.

            "Thanks!" the girl said cheerfully, and sat down.  Beck was just about to lift the fork with her lunch on it to her mouth, when the girl said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

            Beck dropped her fork, "Why not?"

            "That's pasta with meat sauce from the cafeteria, right?  Well, here's how it goes: first week it's hamburgers, next week it's meatloaf, then it's sloppy joes, and the final week it's pasta with meat sauce."

            Beck turned pale green.  "It's all the same meat?" she asked.  The girl nodded her head.  Beck shoved her tray aside.   "There goes my appetite…  Hey, why aren't you sitting at some other table?"

            This time the girl looked around, "I don't have anywhere to sit; I'm not what you'd call a very popular girl.  By the way, my name's Bernadette."

            "I'm Beck."

            "I've been meaning to warn you," the girl said.  "I heard about what you said, about fighting that kid.  I want to warn you not to."

            "What, you don't think I'm strong enough?!"

            "It's not that; I think you're very strong, I just want to warn you against it."

            Beck didn't pay any attention to that warning, and she went out to the parking lot after school.  She met up with the boy and his friends, and defeated the boy with one small punch to his nose.  At that, all his friends attacked her, but she was ready.  She dodged their attacks, and kicked a few in midair, but then punched the rest out.  All of them were lying in the parking lot, only with a few bumps, bruises, cuts, and hurt noses, but none of them could get up.  Beck started feeling good about the work she did, when she saw Bernadette standing across from her.  Bernadette had a very grim look on her face.  Beck now felt miserable.  Then, all of a sudden, Bernadette started clapping.

            "Wow!" Bernadette shouted amazed.  "That was so awesome."  She ran over to Beck.  "That was so cool!"

            Beck now felt that she had to fight with the rest of the students in the institute.  That night she snuck out of her window.  Halfway out, Petey meowed at her.  "I'm sorry Petey, but this is just too dangerous for you."  Petey gave her a look.  "I know it's probably too dangerous for me too.  I promise to be careful."  Petey had an unsure look on his face.  "I swear I'll be fine," she said.  Petey relaxed a little.  "I have to prove that I'm no baby, and can fight easily.  Besides, I finally got myself balanced enough to skate on my inline's without crashing into lots of things."  She jumped down from her window.

She skated around town in her nearly black outfit.  Finally, she came to an old deserted warehouse with so much noise, and no sound of music, that there could only be a fight in there.  She looked at an opening and found that this was where the X-Men were fighting against their archenemies.            Beck saw a window towards the top of the one-and-a-half story warehouse.  She looked around and saw a tree she could climb to get in.  

            She pushed the button on her heal, and the skates popped back into her shoe.  She started climbing, but one of the branches she stood on broke.  Beck almost fell off, but she grabbed onto the branch above her before she could fall.  The fallen branch made a loud **BAM **when it hit the ground.  Beck thought someone must have heard, but no one in the battle seemed to have noticed.  

            She climbed through the window and found that it lead to the rafters.  She climbed across them, quietly and carefully hidden in the shadows.  She studied the fighters from her hiding place in the rafters.  It seemed that the blue woman she had encountered earlier, Mystique, had the ability to morph into other things.  There were other fighters who seemed to be fighting on Mystique's side.  One concentrated, then stomped his foot to make large crevices in the floor, much like an earthquake would do.  Beck noticed he targeted Kitty, and kept making her fall down with the shakes and crevices he was creating.  He also appeared to be the secondary leader of the enemies.

            There was another guy who looked like he weighed a million pounds, but he could move around pretty well.  There was another who could be here one second, and there the next.  He ran so fast, it was like watching a bullet, or superman, or either.  You could get a headache trying to follow him with your eyes, and then when you think you found him, you find out he was hundreds of miles away from where you thought he was.  He seemed to get a kick out of taunting Evan.

            The last guy was this odd looking guy.  He looked slimy, and appeared to have not taken a shower in a year.  He had a really long, green tongue he could grab things with, but that was his only power, other than the fact that he could jump really well.  He seemed like a frog, or something.  He was just pretty gross.

Beck returned her gaze to the walking earthquake.  She noticed that Kitty was getting rather beat up.  Kitty looked as if she was going to pass out, and that earthquake guy was going to make her fall into a crevice.  Beck wouldn't stand for it, but she wasn't sure whether she should come to the rescue yet.  She didn't have much choice though, because the frog guy yelled, "Hey!  There's another one in the rafters.  Everyone looked up.  Beck knew she had been figured out.  She stood up, and jumped down from the rafters.  She landed right on her feet, like a cat.  That was the most graceful move she had ever done in her life.  

            "What are you doing here?" Kitty asked sounding tired.

            "Yeah, what are you doing here?" Scott demanded angrily.

            "I would answer that, but you should be paying more attention to the battle," Beck answered as an overly large fist came towards Scott's face.  Jean froze the fat guy's arm with her telekinesis.  Beck rushed over to Kitty, who desperately needed help.

            Beck walked up to the earthquake guy, concentrated her anger to her fist (like she had been taught to), and punched the guy square in the jaw.  He was out cold.  Beck helped Kitty up.  To answer Kitty's previous question, Beck answered, "I'm here to make sure you aren't kitty litter.  I'm sorry, but I gotta protect my family, especially my new one."  Beck lead Kitty to a safe corner. 

            Beck looked back to the battle.  It seemed the fat guy had tripped and fallen down on the frog guy, and was being pinned down by Jean's telekinesis.  Evan had made the running guy trip over his wooden spikes, and pinned the running guys clothes to the floor.  The leader guy was out cold, and Mystique was an injured wolf.  

            "Fine, you won this battle," Mystique said.  Scott, Jean, Evan, and everyone else on the goodguys' side left the warehouse.   A few blocks away from it, everyone turned around to look at Beck.  Beck knew she'd have some explaining to do to the professor.


End file.
